"We work really hard all year and don't get much time to
goof off," says Lisa Zinkovich MT(ASCP), the quality
assurance-quality control coordinator at Wuesthoff Reference
Laboratories in Rockledge, FL "So, for National Lab Week, our
manager lets us have fun and blow off steam." Zinkovich says her
lab still has to put work out but during this one week of the year,
staffers get to let loose a little.

While the stated purpose of National Medical Laboratory Week is to
raise awareness of the role of the laboratory professional as a partner
in good healthcare, MD learned of two labs that took advantage of the
annual April celebration last year to relax their usual professional
demeanor with a few silly games. If these frolics instructed other
healthcare professionals about the daily contributions made by
laboratorians, so much the better.

Crazy socks, waft pins

Wuesthoff Reference Laboratories (WRL) has 150 employees including
pathologists, laboratory scientists, phlebotomists, couriers, lab
assistants, and a variety of support staff. In 1997, it celebrated
National lab Week with some silliness familiar to many
laboratorians--crazy sock day, wacky pin day, and retro '70s day
among them. But WRL added a few unique twists:

The purple people eater relay "The purple people eater relay
was more than fun; it taught outsiders what was going on in the
lab," Zinkovich says. "We wanted a game that involved personal
protective equipment (PPE), but knew that if we called it that no one
would come." So the familiar term, "PPE," took on another
meaning--the purple people eater who preys on laboratorians who
don't wear protective equipment. The game was a relay race that
required racers to transport "acid" (represented by an egg) in
an approved "hazardous materials carrier" (a spoon). Each leg
of the race required a runner to put on another piece of protective
equipment carry the "acid," find the material safety data
sheet (MSDS) for acid and, finally, dispose of both "hazardous
material" and PPE in approved containers. "In addition to
being fun, the relay was supposed to reinforce training about the
importance of wearing PPE," Zinkovich says.

The clottery. The highlight of the week at WRL was the
"clottery," which included tickets, given daily to each
employee, for a chance to win the prize of a paid day off. Tickets were
placed in a sharps container from which the winner was drawn. In
addition, lab management gave participants canvas tote bags as well as
grab bags filled with goodies. "The clottery was the one event that
everyone liked the best," says Zinkovich.

Mystery contest. There were two "mystery contests." The
"know-the-nose contest" consisted of 35 up-close and
photographs of laboratorians' noses. Participants had to connect
the proboscis with the person. And the "mystery employee
contest" was a guess-who-that-is event that included daily
"cryptic clues" delivered via e-mail.

But not every event was silly. For example, WRL's new lab
safety committee sponsored a "know-your-toxic-waste contest."
Participants were required to find the MSDS and locate specific
pertinent equipment for an assigned chemical. Participants were given
movie tickets.

As often happens at fun lab events, everyone ate well. Says
Zinkovich, "Every day there was a different kind of food; vendors
brought us a ton of it. One day there were bagels, another day,
cheesecake; the pathologists gave us pizza one day, and then there were
covered dishes with western themes." Vendors also donated gifts,
among them T-shirts and coffee mugs.

The challenge of our lab week committee was to combine education
with recreation," says Zinkovich. "Increasing workload,
decreasing staff, and restructuring has caused considerable stress on
employees. AD of us were ready for some well-deserved revelry and
merriment."

Getting recognition

The Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center in Houston, TX, used last
year's National Medical Lab Week to help solve a common
problem--lack of recognition for laboratorians. Their challenge was
educating a staff of 600 about the 100-person lab. To achieve that goal,
"We planned a special event for every day of the week that focused
on one of the five different specialty labs at the Blood Center,"
says Mary Barrera, MT(ASCP), training and education supervisor. The
specialty labs in question were (1) processing, (2) components, (3)
special components, (4) clinical trials, and (5) consultation. To
educate the entire staff about them as well as about all lab work,
"We simply invited everyone to come and learn. We had an open
house, a little carnival with games about the lab." What sorts of
games?. Among the most successful were:

Shake, rattle, and roll. A dice game in which participants matched
icons for laboratory sections, not dots.

Picture contest. Participants had to identify laboratorians by
name and section.

Sick the vein. Players were blindfolded and had to stick adhesive
dots within target areas on a phlebotomy training arm. "People had
such a ball with that," says Barrera.

Guess the percentages. This inservice called for participants to
guess the percentages of different ABO types among Blood Center
employees to see how they compared with the general population.

Give the SE of life. Participants were challenged to take the
individual letters from the Blood Center slogan -give the gift of
life," and make as many other words out of them as possible. The
winner formed 85 words.

Other NMLW ideas

One of the most successful ideas was a series of five
newsletters--one for each day and each specialty lab. Says Barrera,
"Each day of National Medical Lab Week, a different issue of the
newsletter focused on a different section of the lab. It included stones
on the types of processing that went on and the people that worked
there." In addition, the newsletters contained features on what it
takes to be an MT and crossword puzzles with lab themes. "We also
had a `Dear Labby' column in which other blood bank employees asked
us things that they didn't know about the lab." In the final
day's newsletter was a crossword puzzle, "lab Lingo,"
which tested readers' abilities to recall dues printed in earlier
issues.

As was the case with Wuesthoff Reference Laboratories, many of the
prizes were donated by vendors. "They gave us portfolios with pens,
Swiss Army knives, little tool kits, and coffee mugs," Barrera
says.

National Lab Week turned out to be a success for these Texas
laboratorians. Barrera says a lot of people in her lab wanted to know
what they could do next year and whether they could serve on the NMLW
committee. "Being this is a blood center, a lot of the locus is on
the donor. We needed to get the focus on the lab for a change, and
National Lab Week helped us do that. We are very happy."

COPYRIGHT 1998 Nelson Publishing
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